Patrick Muldoon’s sudden passing on April 19 at age 57 has left a profound void for those who knew him, loved him, and worked alongside him. Best known for Days of Our Lives, Melrose Place, and Starship Troopers, Muldoon’s final screen work includes Kevin Interdonato’s Dirty Hands, a gritty, bruising, brotherhood-driven thriller in which Muldoon co-stars opposite Interdonato as Richie, one of two brothers fighting to survive one very long night.
For Interdonato, Muldoon was not simply a co-lead. He was a friend, a creative partner, and, in the world of Dirty Hands, the man who made that central brotherhood breathe.
“It’s definitely a hit for so many people,” Interdonato said, still clearly processing the loss just days after Muldoon’s passing. “It would be selfish of me to even just think about myself in this matter. I’ve known the man for a few years, and I’ve grown to love him, especially being able to connect as brothers, to tell a fairly emotional story.”
That emotional story sits at the core of Dirty Hands. Before the violence, before the drug deal gone wrong, before the garage that becomes both refuge and trap, the film is about Danny and Richie — two brothers whose love is rough, combative, loyal, and bone-deep. Interdonato said that dynamic existed before cameras ever rolled.
He met Muldoon through actor Guy Nardulli, Muldoon’s best friend of some 30 years, and immediately knew he had found his Richie.
“When I met Pat for the first time, I was received with a big hug,” Interdonato recalled. “He picked me up off the ground — he’s like a foot taller than me — and he swung me around, and we were punching each other and having beers within five minutes. And I’m like, this is perfect.”
That instant ease became the lifeblood of the film.
“It just felt right off camera,” Interdonato said. “That’s when I knew that was my guy, because we had it off-screen and there was no acting.”
For Interdonato, casting Richie was never just about talent. It was about finding someone willing to open himself up to the messy, playful, painful, deeply familiar language of sibling love.
“It’s not just about the talent,” he said. “It’s also about the person and how much they’d be willing to open their heart and really innately know what it is to be a playful and loving sibling.”
Muldoon, he said, understood that completely.
“Patrick brought Patrick himself to this,” Interdonato said. “He was just a real bad son of a bitch, you know? Character. He was great.”
That makes Dirty Hands land with an added poignancy now. Muldoon was excited about the film, Interdonato said, and the team made the decision to continue moving forward with the release in a way they believe he would have wanted.
“We also try to stay true to Pat and the personality he had and how big of a light he was for everyone,” Interdonato said. “We really had to rethink everything and say, you know what, this is one hell of a way to go out. And he just wanted to move people. He was so excited about the film. He was so pumped.”
Then Interdonato paused on the only course that felt right.
“We’re just going to send him off in style and continue on as we would,” he said. “And I know he’d be happy about it.”
In Dirty Hands, Muldoon leaves behind more than a final performance. He leaves behind a piece of himself — the humor, physicality, warmth, danger, looseness, and heart that Interdonato saw in him from the first hug.
And for Kevin Interdonato, that is how Patrick Muldoon should be remembered: not as an actor performing brotherhood, but as a man who stepped into it fully, generously, and with his whole heart.
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 04/23/2026
